Chocolate Salted-Caramel Mini Cupcakes

This is the last cupcake post from the days prior to Challengers of the Unknown, which means I will have to go back to using this blog as a vehicle to talk about my love life.

These are really good. They were a recipe I was looking forward to making, and I was right to be excited about it. If you make these, you will want to make them as mini cupcakes. As a rule, I think mini cupcakes are kind of a pain, since they take a lot of work and you have to make three times as many as you would if you were making regular-sized ones. But this recipe is pretty rich, and it might be hard to eat a whole full-sized cupcake, particularly if you do not have a glass of milk, as the women in my Relief Society did not.

This recipe is slightly complicated. First, you bake the cupcakes. The recipe is not difficult, which is good.

Next, however, you have to hollow them all out. I used a 1/8 teaspoon like a mellon-baller to hollow out my cupcakes.

Then, you make salted caramel, which goes inside the little craters.

Unless you, like me, follow Martha Stewart's recipe exactly and still manage to end up with this:

Yeah, that was supposed to be caramel.

The worst part about it was that this happened right before I was supposed to go to church. I carefully weighed my options:

1. Ditch out on Sacrament Meeting, run to the store, come back and make new caramel.

2. Leave the cupcakes and go to church without them. Hang your head in shame, as the Relief Society sisters have come to expect the cupcakes. Hope your lesson makes up for the lack of treats. Make the caramel tomorrow and find ingenious ways to get rid of 58 tiny cupcakes.

3. Use what what I had on hand, which happened to be Smucker's Caramel Ice Cream Topping. I cannot remember ever buying it, so that was pretty fortuitous.

I picked option 3, but don't think that it was an easy decision. Smucker's Ice Cream Topping bears no resemblance to homemade caramel. However, no one seemed to notice. And if they did, no one mentioned it to me.

I'm a little disturbed that I actually considered option 1. It has me a little bit worried about how seriously I am taking this stupid cupcake thing. At the end of the day, whether or not I make salted-caramel chocolate cupcakes will not matter much, even if it means I won't have them to show off in Relief Society. Once in awhile, I need to regain a little perspective.

The next day, however, I made another batch of salted caramel for the few remaining cupcakes, which I took in to work. I felt they were well worth the extra effort.

But it doesn't end there. After you fill the cupcakes and sprinkle the filling with a little sea salt, you have to make chocolate ganache frosting.

This you pipe on top of the cupcakes before sprinkling them with a little more sea salt.

Aren't they gorgeous? They ended up being almost like tiny, cupcake-shaped chocolate truffles. And, as I pointed out in Relief Society, they are the ultimate chick food: sweet and salty and very rich. If only I could find a man like that.

Chocolate Salted-Caramel Mini Cupcakes (makes about 56 mini)

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

3/4 c. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

3/4 c. buttermilk

3 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3/4 c. warm water

sea salt-I used the sea salt I bought at Trader Joe's.

Preheat oven to 350. Line mini muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and and salt. Add eggs, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and water. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups. Bake for about 15 minutes. Let cool completely.

Use a knife or a spoon to remove a small amount of cake from the center of each cupcake. Discard pieces or wolf them down with a glass of milk. Spoon 1-2 teaspoons of warm filling into each hollowed out cupcake. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt over filling.

Fit a pastry bag with a medium open-star tip (Wilton #18) with dark chocolate frosting. Pipe frosting onto each cupcake, swirling tip and releasing as you pull up to form a peak. Garnish each cupcake with another pinch of sea salt.

Salted caramel filling--I do not trust Martha's recipe, as I will still maintain it was the recipe that made the caramel turn out badly, not my human error. I used the caramel recipe in my Essential Mormon Cookbook.

Caramel Sauce

1 1/2 c. packed brown sugar

3/4 c. light corn syrup

2/3 c. heavy cream

3/4 c. butter

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Cool. Makes about 1 1/2 pints.

And here is a link to the frosting. It is extremely decadent.

Gingerbread Cupcakes

I had a few recipes that intended to make over Christmas that I did not. This was one such recipe. Again, I don't really understand why Martha Stewart includes so many recipes that are somewhat similar, like the two pumpkin recipes, and two ginger recipes. But this was a good one. Simple, sweet.

Had I made them Martha's way, I would have topped them with gingerbread men and women. Seeing as how it is past Christmas, I elected not to do that.

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Makes 22

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp. ground ginger

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 c. sugar

3 Tbsp. unsulfured molasses

4 large eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin tins with liners. Sift together flour and spices. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add molasses, and beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until just combined.

Divide batter evenly among lied cups. Bake about 25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Frost with fluffy vanilla frosting. Or, if you prefer, top with sweetened whipped cream, instead.

Because there isn't a lot to say about this recipe, I thought I would showcase my aprons. As I mentioned before, I received three aprons for Christmas this year. Each one of them was unique and reflective of the person who gave it to me. I love all of them, and consider it a shame that when I bake, it's usually just me, so no one actually gets to see me in my cute aprons.

Stephanie gave me this one. If you can't tell, it is covered in very intricate embroidery, and, when I put it on, it looks like a cute halter dress.

Maria made me this one by hand. I am a huge fan of the pockets, and it matches the appliances in my kitchen.

Anne gave me this one. If I can find a skirt out of this fabric, I will be very excited.

I think these cupcakes have become a big part of my identity. Either that, or I am walking around with food stains on my clothes.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes & Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Before starting the new blog, which I have been much more excited about in the last few days than my dissertation, I began several cupcake posts on this blog. I am not sure if I should post these old ones on my new blog, or just start with the cupcakes I've baked since starting the new blog, so as not to overwhelm the group site with cupcake recipes. I guess I'll just post my old recipes here and see how it all goes. Also, since I made these cupcakes the same day as the maple cupcakes, it only seems appropriate to at least post these on the same site.

Between the maple cupcakes and these, I decided to take an hour and clean my kitchen. For the first time in a long time, all of my dishes were clean, my counter was clean, my sink was clean, and my mixer was clean. I took pictures to document the occasion.

This was in preparation to make two more recipes, the first of which was peanut butter cupcakes.

I got invited to a cookie exchange with the women from work. I was faced with a dilemma: make a fabulous cookie recipe, like I was supposed to, or make more cupcakes and check another recipe off my list. As a compromise, I made two recipes that touted themselves as "cupcake cookies." These are recipes for cupcakes that are based on familiar cookie recipes, like peanut butter and oatmeal raisin.

Here's the link. And here's the other link. I am not a big raisin fan, so I substituted them for milk chocolate chips.

I have to say, these were not my favorite cupcakes I have ever made. I think I am sort of a purist. I like cookies to be cookies and cupcakes to be cupcakes, What was leftover from the cookie exchange went to Mix 'N Munch, and then into work three days before Christmas.

The nice thing about my job is that, if I leave something in the break room, someone will either eat it or throw it away for me. Sometimes people take bites out of things and put them back on plates, but nobody is perfect-particularly not psychiatrists.

The New Blog is Up!!!!

I will create a link to it on my page, but, in the meantime, the url is ninjapowerteam.blogspot.com. It doesn't have anything to do with anything, but no one else was using that blog address, so I snatched it up. If you would still like to be involved in the new blog but haven't been invited yet, let me know, and I will add you. I'm kind of embarrassed to be as excited about this as I am.

Starting a group blog

Can I just say how relieved I am that a) people actually got excited about joining a group blog and b) I am not the only person who ever thinks about which actress would portray me in a movie of my life (Keiko Agena).

So, the first step in starting this group blog will be to come up with a name for the blog. It turns out you can't even start a blog until you come up with a name for it. Any suggestions? I think it should be something punchy that reflects all of the different goals that people are trying to accomplish, whether they be baking or yoga or whatever. Leave your suggestions in the comments section. And if you, or someone you know would still like to join us, it's not too late!

An invitation to start a group baking blog

This idea was actually spawned by my brother-in-law. For those of you who know George and are scratching your heads, hang onto your hats for this story:

Over Christmas, I bought my brother-in-law, George, a book called All Cakes Considered. It is a book written by Melissa Gray, who is a producer at NPR's show All Things Considered, hence the title of the book. She is known around her office as the cake lady because she bakes a cake once a week and brings it into the office to share with her coworkers. Her book is a series of her cake recipes (one for every week in the year) that get progressively more complicated as the book goes on. If you were a cake novice, by making each recipe in her book, you could become a cake expert by the time you finished. Sounds like a fun idea, huh?

George heard about the book on NPR and thought about getting a copy for his wife. They checked the book out of the public library to try the recipes out, first. Then, a really amazing thing happened: (amazing if you know George, whose cooking talents include--according to him and Melanee--scrambled eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches) George decided to bake a cake himself.

What was even more amazing was that he LIKED it. George is a very meticulous person, and he followed the instructions in the book exactly, and the cake turned out wonderful, so I'm told. So, he went on and made another cake, and it was great, too.

While I was visiting, George made a sweet-potato cake, which I was slightly skeptical about, given that I am not a sweet potato fan, but it was GREAT. It was incredibly moist, and it combined sweet potatoes with apples for a really great fall/winter flavor. It didn't even have frosting, and it was still a great cake.

After tasting his cake, I tried to convince George to start a baking blog with me, where we would both chronicle our respective baking projects. I also invited Melanee to come up with a baking project of her own and join our blog. She's thinking pie.

The more that I thought about it, though, the more I thought it might be fun to invite everyone who reads my blog, whether you are friends, family members, or slightly sheepish blogstalkers, to be involved in this hypothetical baking blog and chronicle your baking projects. Just consider the prospect for a minute: a blog where multiple contributors chronicle a baking/cooking goal, sharing experiences, pictures, recipes (if you feel so inclined. I don't want anyone to feel weird about copyright issues). I think it could blow Julie Powell and TastyKitchen out of the water (just kidding. I love Julie Powell and TastyKitchen). Pretty soon, we'll have a book deal. Maybe they'll even make a movie about it.

In all seriousness, though, this would be a great time to start a project like this, given that it is a new year and we are all striving to be better people and such, by working out more, finishing our unfinished projects, and baking high calorie desserts. It wouldn't even have to be baking, per se. If you want to spend your year cooking pork or making Jell-O salads, that is okay, too. In fact, if you have no culinary aspirations but want to participate by blogging about a goal you have set or a New Year's resolution you want to be accountable for, come join us.

In all reality, I don't know if this will work. This could be like inviting a bunch of people to a party and no one showing up. Of course, your best course of action if you are anticipating such a party is to make sure that a couple of cool people are going to be there, and that everyone else knows that. That said, Melanee and George have given me permission to say that they will participate in this blog. This means that a) if you decide to participate, you know you won't be the only one at the party with only the lame-o host b) you know that this party is going to be super-cool, because that is the only way to describe my sister and brother-in-law.

If you would like to be involved, please leave a comment and let me know. After a few days/weeks, we'll start the blog. In the meantime, if you are working on a project, make sure to take some pictures. Also, think about who's going to play you when this blog becomes a movie.

Allergen Free Chocolate Cupcakes

In planning my visit to Utah, there was a crucial detail that I neglected to factor in:

It snows there.

Sometimes, it snows a lot.

I didn't experience blizzards or anything while I was there, but we did have a couple of days where we elected to stay home, rather than drive out in the snow.

So we had to come up with some things to do at home. Bear in mind that, if Kevin had his way, we would have just sat in the family room watching Cars in our pajamas for three days straight. But I came up with some other activities.

First, I had the kids model their Halloween costumes for me. That took up some time. As you

can see, Sammie took the dog thing very seriously and decided this was a good time to start drinking out of a bowl on the floor.

Then, Melanee suggested I take some time and bake cookies with her kids.

I suggested we do cupcakes, instead because I could cross another one off of my list.

Plus, it meant Sammie and I had an opportunity to dress up in our aprons. I was fortunate enough this Christmas to receive three aprons. Apparently, great minds think alike. And every one of them is super-cute. The one I am wearing in this picture was given to me by Shane and Maria, and Maria actually made it. It's hard to tell, but it is covered in cherries and, smart woman that she is, Maria made the part that goes around my neck adjustable, which is good, since that is the part of the apron that tends to be a bad fit on me. I am a big fan of Sammie's chef's hat, also.

If you're wondering, no one in the family is allergic to eggs or milk or nuts, which this cake is

free from. However, this is a great recipe to make with a young child for some key reasons:

It doesn't require any fancy ingredients.

It doesn't ask for any complicated procedures. In fact, we made these cupcakes in one bowl.

It doesn't call for any eggs. So, I guess it's also a good recipe to use if

you don't have any eggs in your house and you still want to make cupcakes.

This last part was particularly important because Sammie wanted to do EVERYTHING by herself, from adding ingredients to mixing batter to filling the tins. I can only imagine how it could have gone if eggs were involved. And she is a pretty hard person to say no to. At least, she is for me. And I feel, since I am not in charge of her discipline, and I want her to like me, that I shouldn't have to say no to her as often as her parents do. This attitude got me into a little bit of trouble with her mother, particularly because the batter is extremely thin, and it dripped all over the place when she tried to fill the liners. After we baked them, we discovered that some of the cupcakes had batter on the outside of the liners, which baked like normal and made for an interesting look.

But I thought they turned out pretty good, despite the fact that they contained no eggs or dairy. And, yes, I allowed Sammie to help me dust them with powdered sugar and cocoa, which is why they look like cocoa exploded on them. Here is the recipe. The link also adds a frosting recipe, but I thought they were fine without frosting.

After we finished the cupcakes, we decided to go outside and build a snowman. Sammie and I began the snowman together, while Melanee was inside dressing Kevin for the snow, and, apparently, fighting with him over this pair of oversized pink boots he did not want to wear, which is how he ended up wearing his tennis shoes, and why he did not stay outside for very long.

I decided initially that the snowman would be the same size as Sammie. However, by the time Melanee and Kevin came outside, the snowman was just barely at Sammie's knees, and my enthusiasm was already beginning to wane. Fortunately, Melanee decided that this snowman needed to look different from your average snowman whose body is big while his head is small. We went for the big head/small body approach, instead.

Not unlike this handsome gentleman on the right. He was slightly more thrilled to be outside than this picture would indicate, but his feet were probably freezing in their little canvas shoes, and he refused to put his thumbs in the thumb place, so he was without opposable thumbs for the moment. He kept trying to take his mittens off so that he could use his thumbs, but, of course, that made his hands cold. Then his nose started to run. Needless to say, he didn't last long.

After Melanee put Kevin down for a nap, we came back out to finish our snowman. For those of you who don't know my sister, she is something of a perfectionist. And it rears its ugly head at the oddest of times, like when it's approximately 20 degrees outside and we're trying to put a face on a snowman. We were very happy with the results, especially when we were back inside and our feet had the chance to thaw a little.

After some ethical debates, Melanee broke some branches off the tree behind her house for the snowman's arms. I would guess that the HOA would not be particularly pleased if they knew she'd done that. However, since George is on the HOA board, maybe they will cut her some slack.

It is hard to tell from this tiny picture, but the snowman's eyes are pistachio shells that we colored with a Sharpie. His nose is a baby carrot (at Sammie's insistence), and his teeth are dried black beans, which made us giggle as we thought about Mr. Heyman, the gym teacher on Seinfeld who had "little baked bean teeth."

Here's Sammie with our completed snowman. As you can probably tell, Kevin

donated his hat to the cause while he was blissfully sleeping in his warm bed, and the next day, Melanee bought him another one. We were extremely proud of our snowman in his scarf and prison snitch hat.

But we were extremely cold and tired, which is what led Sammie to flop down in the snow and make a snow angel. I think.

I have also included this picture of Brooklyn. She had already returned to California when the snow day took place, so I don't have any pictures of her playing in the snow. However, I love this picture of her for many reasons:

-She is so darn cute.

-When this picture was taken, she had just received a sweater dress from my parents--which she put on over the sweater she was already wearing--as well as a shopping cart, which she began to push. She is also wearing a hat which one of her Haynie aunts crocheted for her. Separately, each piece is fine. Altogether, though, it sort of makes her look like a tiny bag lady. And if you think I'm terrible for suggesting that, know that her parents said it first.

Also, they left the shopping cart at Melanee's house until they went home to California, but they came back the next day. It took Brooklyn a while to warm up to being at Melanee's house. I was trying to remind Brooklyn about the shopping cart by pushing it around for her. However, she took that to mean that I wanted the shopping cart for myself (because my nieces and nephew seem to think of me as part of their peer group), and she spent the next half hour looking at me suspiciously. When she finally started playing with the shopping cart, she'd race past me with it crying, "Nope! Nope!" It was about the cutest thing I have ever seen, except that she wouldn't let me come near her.

Fortunately, her dad let me bribe her with candy, and then we were friends again.